For the sake of those who might be unfamiliar:
Tou-chan - Dad/Father
Kaa-chan - Mom/Mother
Baa-chan - Grandmother
akachan - baby
Oyaji - Another term of endearment referring to one's father
Teal irises lethargically accustomed themselves to the steady flow of morning light into the room. Vaguely, their owner feels something amiss before the irritating sound of his alarm clock disrupted the quiet. Shikadai groaned and swung his arm lazily towards the offending gadget before he threw his covers off and rubbed the last of the sleep from his eyes. He knew he had to go down soon, lest he wanted his hurricane of a mother to fetch him personally. A verbal berating is not what he would like for breakfast. He had that once and he certainly didn't like it.
"Ohayou," he mumbled lazily, plopping himself before the table and resting his cheek against his crossed arms that were warming themselves on the wood.
"Are? Aren't you quite the early riser today?" his mother jibed softly and he didn't have to look up to see the smirk playing about her lips. Shikadai sat up straight as Temari set his breakfast down before him. "Ohayou gozaimasu to you too, my little fawn."
He had learned how to cope with that little nickname he seemed to have been stuck with ever since he was born. Then again, it was better than being called 'bambi' but his little sister didn't seem to mind it. "Academy..." Shikadai said in simple explanation.
"Academy?" Temari repeated, her little smirk growing wider before she let out a snigger. "Oh, akachan. It's your first day of summer holiday."
The usually unexcited expression on Shikadai's face contorted into a deep frown and he closed his eyes before letting out a huff. Without a word to his mother, he poised to stand up to go back to his bedroom intending to claim some more hours of sleep. However, his mother wasn't a fearsome kunoichi for a reason and as swift and light as the wind, he felt a hand grasp his wrist firmly. "Sit back down."
'Mendokuse,' he thought silently not wanting to detonate a nuclear bomb so early in the morning. Shikadai followed his mother's orders and tucked his legs beneath him. "Oyaji? Yuri-chan?"
Temari, content that her son was going to join her for breakfast, handed Shikadai his chopsticks and pushed the tamago plate to him once more. "Your Tou-chan has an early appointment with Naruto in preparation for the Shinobi Alliance meeting next month. Your sister...well, she is still with your Baa-chan. I arrived far too late last night and didn't want to wake them up only to have them sleep again."
Nodding, Shikadai gulped down some milk first before he started on breakfast. "Shinobi Alliance? Shouldn't you be involved as well? Ambassadress-ing and all?"
"Not if I had already finished my job yesterday. All that's left is for your Tou-chan and your Oji-san to decide what to take to the meeting before we all go in a month's time. I have two weeks off from ambassadorial duties unless my name comes up on the mission rosters."
"And what will you do for two weeks, Kaa-chan?" he asked, curiosity and innocence evident in his tone. It was a foreign concept to him, how his mother would be off any of her duties. She seemed to be a busy person overall (but not as busy as Oyaji), even if none of her roles are being sacrificed. He certainly doesn't feel her figurative absence as a mother. She just is able to stretch herself thin and still look well-rested (and pretty, he could add, but he chooses not to since many of his male classmates were the ones who volunteered that description. It wasn't that she was not...it was just a little weird.). "Are you going to watch clouds or surf the sofa all two-weeks long?"
"Who am I, your Tou-chan?" she asked with a chortle. "It takes quite a lot of time in a day to properly run a household, my little fawn. And when I came home last night, I saw so many things that need to be arranged or re-arranged. Honestly, this place might crumble if I spent any more day out of it. Also, what better way to spend my short leave with my babies? Though I am inclined to leave Sayuri with your Baa-chan at least until today. I did promise her five days of pure Sayuri bonding. I might train in the forest today."
A soft and discreet smile managed to break through his lips even if he tried to suppress it in an attempt of being cool. However, four straight days without the physical presence of his mother (thank Kami for video chats) rendered him longing to spend some quality time with Kaa-chan, even going as far as him craving one of her very stern lectures. "Well...then...can-can I join you? Oyaji told me he'll teach me more shadow jutsu on Saturday but it's too troublesome to wait for it."
His mother's face broke into a proud and bright smile. He had to shake off her hand as it tousled his untied hair, groaning as he patted it down once more. "Of course, my little fawn. I'll be more than happy to train you today."
A few hours after found them packing a picnic of light sandwiches and potable water inside a dainty basket. The mother and son pair had agreed to train the whole morning away and eat lunch by the creek that flows near the training grounds in the Nara forest. Temari had the mind to pack another set of clothes for her son and another set of undergarments for her. "Right, then. Let's warm up by walking for a mile then going into a sprint when we reach the central oak tree."
"Sprint? But the food..."
"What about the food? It's part of training, my little fawn. There will come a time when you would be sent on a recovery mission or someone in your three-man cell would be fatally wounded. Shinobi who abandon their allies are considered scums of the Earth, sure. But what good is not leaving your teammate if you can't properly take care of them whilst in transit? Not only does the possibility of further damage or wound infection rise, the possibility of mortality rises as well," Temari explained.
Shikadai blinked up at his mother and thought that when he asked her to train him today, he didn't expect that training would begin even before they went out of their house.
"So then...you want me to carry the basket with our food and drinks and I need to figure out how to transport it carefully while sprinting towards the training grounds?" he asked, deducing what his mother must have meant when she mentioned going on missions. "I guess I could do that."
Smirking, Temari tousled his hair once more and chuckled when almost none of it were displaced since Shikadai had already tied it up properly into a single ponytail. "You look extremely like your Touchan whenever you put your hair up like that. Had you inherited my hair colour, you'd look so much more like me no matter how you keep your hair tied."
"I don't know which to take as insult and which as compliment."
"How about neither? Your Touchan is quite handsome. And I suppose I'm not the ugliest in the world."
"My classmates say you're very pretty, Kaa-chan."
"Oh? Do they? Well, thank them for me."
"Yeah, yeah. I don't agree. You're beautiful, Kaa-chan."
Temari grinned brightly at her son, the same toothy grin that she had flashed Shikamaru years before when their friendship has just started, before she chuckled and pulled him into a hug. "You are such a smooth talker like your Touchan, my little fawn," she said melodiously before peppering kisses on the boy's face, much to his slight annoyance.
"Kaa-chan..." he groaned helplessly in the middle of it all, but secretly feeling smug that he had put a smile as wide as that on his mother's face. Maybe he should compliment her more often.
Regaining composure, the Suna princess stood up straight once more and flashed another endearing grin to her son. "Hai, hai. I've got my fair share of Dai-chan's kisses today. I think I am good to go."
